Zhongguo quanke yixue (Apr 2022)

The Incubation Period of COVID-19 Caused by Different SARS-CoV-2 Variants

  • WU Yu, LIU Min

DOI
https://doi.org/10.12114/j.issn.1007-9572.2022.0078
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 25, no. 11
pp. 1309 – 1313

Abstract

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Since the beginning of the COVID-19 epidemic, the pathogen of COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, has evolved and mutated continuously, producing variants with different enhanced transmission and virulence, such as Alpha (B.1.1.7) , Beta (B.1.351) , Gamma (P.1) , Delta (B.1.617.2) and Omicron (B.1.1.529) . An intensive study of the incubation period of COVID-19 caused by different SARS-CoV-2 variants will contribute to tracing the origin of COVID-19, determining the detention, quarantine and isolation time of close contacts, and timely improving measures for containing COVID-19. We reviewed the major studies on the incubation period of COVID-19 caused by wild-type strains and different variants of SARS-CoV-2, which estimated that the incubation period of COVID-19 caused by wild-type SARS-CoV-2 strains was 4-8 (median 5.5) days. And that for COVID-19 caused by Beta or Gamma variant was generally similar to that by wild-type strains, about 5 days. The incubation period of COVID-19 caused by Alpha, Delta and Omicron variants was shorter than that of other strains, which was 4, 4 and 3 days, respectively.

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